1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pneumatic tires having a low air permeability, an improved fatigue resistance and a low fuel consumption by using an inner liner composed of a rubber composition containing micro organic short fibers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lately, energy- and resource-saving is one of most significant problems even in the tire industry. That is, the development of low fuel consumption tires and weight-saving tires is most preferential in addition to the improvement of energy efficiency in the tire works. Under such situations, the following four measures are fundamentally considered to develop so-called low fuel consumption tires having a lower rolling resistance inclusive of weight-saving tires:
(1) Weight-saving;
(2) conversion of each component to low energy-loss material;
(3) conversion of tire structure itself (e.g. conversion from bias structure to radial structure; and
(4) application of a higher internal pressure.
In order to achieve the low fuel consumption and weight-saving of the tires, these four measures should be closely connected with each other without independently considering them.
On the other hand, an inner liner for the tire acts not to permeate air and is closely related to the above four measures.
First of all, it is a matter of course that the gauge of each portion of the tire should be reduced in order to plan the weight-saving of the tire. In this case, the tire tends to reduce the function as a pressure vessel. Therefore, the thickness of the inner liner must be increased or the performance of the inner liner must be improved. However, the increase of the thickness of the inner liner is fundamentally contrary to the weight-saving. For this reason, the air permeability should be further reduced as the inner liner.
Secondly, the application of the higher internal pressure means that a pressure promoting air permeation is naturally raised. Therefore, the air permeability of the inner liner must also be reduced likewise the case of the weight-saving.
Heretofore, butyl series rubbers have been used in the inner liner. Consequently, the energy loss of the inner liner is large. Furthermore, the inner liner is relatively large in quantity on the whole of the tire, so that it is high in the contribution to the energy loss of the tire. Therefore, the reduction of the energy loss in the inner liner comes into significant question.
In other words, the weight-saving and low fuel consumption of the tire are made possible by using an inner liner having low air permeability and energy loss. At present, the following four factors restrict the improvement of performances of the inner liner.
(1) Butyl rubber or halogenated butyl rubber is necessary to blend with the other diene rubber because it is poor in the adhesion to the other diene rubber. (The air permeability is lowest in the butyl rubber or halogenated butyl rubber).
(2) Butyl rubber or halogenated butyl rubber is large in the swelling and shrinking at sheeting process before unvulcanization, hard to shape into a uniform sheet, and easy to fluidize under a small stress. Therefore, in the production of the tire, the resulting inner liner is ununiform in the gauge, so that air permeates through the thinned portion of the inner liner.
(3) Halogenated butyl rubber particularly reacts with an antioxidant at a kneading temperature an under a shearing action in the kneading, so that it cannot be blended with the anitoxidant as in the case of usual rubber compositions. Therefore, when crack is formed on the tire surface and gradually grows in the last stage of the tire running, it makes possible to produce a large crack in the inner liner.
(4) Butyl rubber or halogenated butyl rubber is basically large in the energy loss, so that the decrease of carbon black content or the increase of sulfur content should be taken in order to reduce the energy loss. However, the decrease of carbon black content results in the insufficient reinforcing effect, while the increase of sulfur content results in the lowering of elongation at rupture and hence in the deterioration of resistance to crack growth.
Accordingly, if solutions against these factors can be found, the performances of the inner liner can further be improved, which considerably accelerates the developing speed of low fuel consumption tires. However, there are not yet developed techniques solving these drawbacks up to now.